STANLEY CUP FINAL: No one's sleeping on Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick anymore ... not even himself

EL SEGUNDO - Believe it or not, there was a time when Jonathan Quick was caught napping on the job.

"All I think of with Jonathan Quick when I see him now is when he was in the East Coast League, he fell asleep on the couch and Billy Ranford went down there to see him. He left the goalie coach with no goalie on the ice," Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said. "That's how far Jonathan Quick has come."

"Billy Ranford goes all the way down there, I don't know where the hell it was, to give him his tutoring. He's at the rink and Quicker's sleeping. You don't think there's some growth there?"

Lombardi wisely delegated the phone call to Quick to his right-hand man Ron Hextall, who was not too much calmer. Today, Hextall sings Quick's praises in as close to a serenading falsetto as the rugged former goalie can muster.

"He's matured as a player, he's also matured as a person. They kind of go side by side," Hextall said.

Quick has developed into a monster between the pipes, a Vezina Trophy finalist in the regular season and the frontrunner for the Conn Smythe Trophy as his team sits one win away from the Stanley Cup.

Quick was in the top five in every major goaltending category, leading the league in shutouts with 10.

Even so, from a strictwin/loss standpoint, Quick was barely .500, winning 35 games, losing 21 in regulation and dropping 13 in overtime or a shootout for a total of 34 losses.

"He allowed us to find our game in front of him," said Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell, who credited Quick with the Kings just reaching the postseason. "That's what great goalies do. They allow teams to find their game."

Indeed, the Kings discovered their swagger late in the season, heating up at the right time. Meanwhile, Quick found another level to his own game.

In the playoffs, Quick has led the league in every major goaltending category among goalies who made four or more starts. He has been a road warrior, winning all 10 of his starts away from Staples Center.

"He's been our most consistent player all year," Kings center Mike Richards said. "The biggest reason we made the playoffs is that he was so consistent and he played every night the same way.

"Playoffs have been no different. He's just been solid back there and every time we've needed a big save at big times he's made it."

Quick has improved each year since becoming the Kings' starter. In the three full seasons he has spent as their No. 1 goaltender, they have made the playoffs following a six-season absence from the postseason.

He took a 2010 first-round loss to Vancouver hard, a series in which many observers thought he felt the fatigue of an arduous 72-appearance campaign.

He came into camp the next season in tremendous physical condition, determined to shoulder the load with aplomb as he has in each of his past two campaigns.

Quick's numbers have gotten leaner with each passing year, as has the muscle on the flexible, athletic netminder.

"He takes a lot of pride in his game, how he needs to treat his body and how he needs to prepare," center Jarret Stoll said. "His preparation and focus are unbelievable."

His campaign this season was so stellar that he was able to surmount the lack of prominence that comes from playing for what had been a middling team playing in the Pacific time zone. He was named one of three finalists for the Vezina Trophy as the league's most outstanding goaltender.

"He's out here in the West," Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. "If he's in New York where everyone's thinking (the Rangers' Henrik) Lundqvist is going to win the Vezina or whatever, I don't think there's any doubt that Quickie would win it.

"We lost so many games by one goal, we won so many games by one goal and that was all due to his hard work and how well he was playing."

Quick has been criminally understated in discussing his own achievements, perhaps obscuring his personality to the media and the public.

Even on the verge of a Cup victory that would end 45 years of suffering for some fans and elate the roster, Quick remains stoic.

"(Game 4) doesn't count any more than the rest of them did," Quick said. "It's one game, so we're just going to play our game, work as hard as we can, try to be as prepared as possible and see what happens."

In describing his dominant performances throughout the season, he underplayed their quality and uniqueness, describing them in painfullyplain terms. His summary of his playoff performance did not differ.

"I feel I've tried to give my team a chance to win every night," Quick said. "From a goalie standpoint, that's your job. You try to do your job every night. Hopefully, more times than not, you're able to do that."

Doughty described Quick as surprisingly normal for a goalie and a guy who is more forthcoming around his teammates. Hextall described him as "laid back." Defenseman Rob Scuderi joined Doughty in saying he was not the typical quirky goalie, describing his personality more as that of a stay-at-home defenseman.

Yet on the ice, he is focused, driven and meticulous. St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock compared him to Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour and Terry Sawchuk in the course of one series. It was high praise that would be the basketball equivalent of a guard being compared to Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Clyde Drexler and Oscar Robertson.

One of Quick's most distinct qualities is his ability to track the puck. He peers over shoulders, between legs, around hips and seemingly through bodies to locate the 3-by-1-inch biscuit.

"One of the biggest things with a competitive goaltender is looking for pucks around people," said Hextall, who once had a postseason so strong with Philadelphia that he captured the 1987 Conn Smythe Trophy despite playing for the losing side. "It's one of the hardest things in the position to do. It takes a high level of competitiveness to track the puck and Quick's got that."

The other signature quality of Quick that has propelled him to success is his resilience. Much like a great football cornerback, he has the ability to learn from mistakes without being affected by them.

He has seldom if ever put together consecutive poor periods, let alone games, this year. He allowed four or more goals in back-to-back games just once this season.

"A bad goal or a bad game doesn't bother him," Hextall said. "That's something along the lines of Marty Brodeur where you're competitive but you don't let things bother you."

The detail-oriented, resilient, deferential Quick has not started puckering up to kiss the Cup just yet. Nevertheless, he finds himself a win away from living the sweetest of hockey dreams.